After years of fixing the broken snowblower in the kitchen, I finally broke down this spring from my endless self-nagging and broke ground on my shop. I designed and framed it myself, but called in a couple pros to help me set the trusses and get the roof on before the snow flies. It's exactly 3x the footprint of my house with the carport. 60' x 32'. The house I built is only 20' x 32'. I sometimes manage to amaze myself by what I can do on weekends and evenings with the help of a few friends to raise some walls. I'll finally have a place to defrost frozen vehicles and store my tools, survey gear and get out all the outdoor gear that's cluttering up my house. I'll have exactly a nickel left in the bank when I turn on the heat, and I don't care. That money in the bank wasn't doing a thing for me anyway.
You'll love it. Built 20x28 house 25 years ago then a 24x36 garage 15 years ago. No more shoveling out and shoveling off vehicles!
Does that roof pitch handle an Alaskan load of snow?
> It's exactly 3x the footprint of my house with the carport..
My friends and I believe that 3x is the minimum multiplier necessary to house the man toys.
Nice.
Steve
Williwaw,
That first cold 1 ft of snow day and walking back and opening the door ....priceless. Enjoy.
Pablo B-)
The goal now should be to actually store more dollars worth of stuff in your new storage space than what the storage space cost to erect. Time and time again I have seen cases where a $40,000 structure was built to house a $1000 vehicle and a pile of stuff that might bring $300 at an auction. My garage that has never had a vehicle in it would be a prime example of that. I didn't build it, so I won't take all the blame.
Thanks guys! I'm really quite happy with the way it turned out (more like ecstatic). The roof is a 3/12 metal and should shed to the back straight into a french drain system. I went with a low profile because of the hurricane strength winds we get sometimes. Used TDS Foresight to compute everything and built using a decimal tape. Drew a few blank stares from the professionals I brought in at the end to dry it in when they asked to borrow my tape. 😉 I've long held onto the beleif that it was rather pointless to have a bunch of nice toys if I had nowhere to keep them nice.
The metal combined with a 3/12 pitch should do the job. The way the building is oriented into the prevailing wind, I expect the wind to do most of the work.
Nice. I look forward to the day when I can build a shop. I need one in the worst way.
> Nice. I look forward to the day when I can build a shop. I need one in the worst way.
Jimmy,
I've been planning, scheming and saving for about five years to get this done. If there is a will, there is a way.
